Exploring Altered Consciousness

October 21, 2003

Tonight's guest, intrepid researcher and remote viewer, Stephan Schwartz (pictured left) spent a week undergoing the "Gateway Voyage," at the Monroe Institute(1), which he documented in his article The Path of Sound(2). The program, he writes, involved the passage through various states of states of altered consciousness that are achieved through listening to tapes developed by the late Bob Monroe (who had become known for his out-of-body experiences).

Voyagers at the Institute should not expect Holiday Inn-style accommodations. But then they didn't come here to watch HBO and lounge by a swimming pool. CHEC Units (Controlled Holistic Environmental Chambers) were just big enough for a single bed and small cabinet, Schwartz reported. However, each room was set up as a receptacle for the tapes, with headphones and "and a control panel for sound and light built into the wall." The tapes, which are a core part of the Voyage, employ Monroe's "Hemi-Sync" process, a combination of beats, tones, and verbal guidance, that interact particularly with the Theta and Delta brain waves, "which are associated with creative breakthroughs and spiritual epiphanies," Schwartz was informed.
Participants pass through various "Focus" stages, ending at Focus 21, which is said to offer a "beyond time-space" experience. Towards the end of the week, Schwartz had arrived there: "I am in a space where 'I' gave almost ceased to exist. I can hear and see nothing...Then I become aware that I am somewhere, and I can see even though my eyes are still closed." Schwartz concluded that the Gateway Voyage is not so much about having OBE's, but rather learning a non-religious meditative technique based on sound. "If I had never meditated, this experience would have taken me to states of consciousness normally not reached until you had meditated regularly for about six years - at least in my case," he concluded.--L.L.(3)